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VII.1. Presentation - Shady Oak Station Area Planning BackgroundShady Oak Station Area Development Opportunity Hopkins, Minnesota Background To facilitate the development of the Shady Oak Station area on the METRO Green Line Extension, the former Hopkins Tech Center property was acquired by the Met Council in 2018. The property was purchased to construct a LRT station platform, a new city street with bike/ped facilities and a park and ride parking lot. While the entire parcel was purchased, only a portion of the property is needed for the station and roadway infrastructure. The remaining land is expected to be available for redevelopment by the by the Met Council as soon as late 2025. The goal is to realize a transit-supportive development north of the station platform. Several local and federal requirements must be met for the Green Line Extension project for before the site can be redeveloped. Station Area Vision Future development will gradually turn aging industrial uses to new residential and employment centers, bringing better connectivity for pedestrians, bicyclists and automobiles. The City of Hopkins supports the following goals for development: Green buildings. The City strives for sustainability and energy use reduction. Development should reflect those goals and be built to meet green building standards. Affordable housing. The City of Hopkins is in the process of developing an Inclusionary Housing policy. Affordability of at least 10% of the housing units should be assumed. Complement – not compete with Downtown Hopkins. Historic downtown Hopkins should be considered an asset and the uses at this station area should complement and support the uses downtown rather than create a competing market. Active street level uses along 17th Avenue South. In order to create a pedestrian environment, active uses should be incorporated into the street level. Mix of uses. A built-out station area will have a mix of uses (housing, retail, office and artisan manufacturing) in order to create opportunities to live and work in proximity and have eyes on the station for safety and activation. Density. Development within the station area should be at densities that maximize access to transit, support ridership and increase tax base. There are several LRT station area planning documents that have been developed over time that can be found on the City’s webpage Station Area Planning | Hopkins, MN (hopkinsmn.com) Possible build-out scenario of Shady Oak Station Schedule Civil construction activities programed for the site must be completed before redevelopment of the site can occur. The civil contractor is currently scheduled to be completed with work on this site by mid-2024 (date subject to change.) Concurrently with construction, the Council is working to remove and address federal, state, and local funding restrictions and requirements to prepare the site for redevelopment. Once these restrictions and requirements have been addressed, Council will conduct an appraisal and a market and financial feasibility analysis. The Council and the City will collaboratively draft and issue a Request for Developer proposals as soon as early-2025. After a developer is selected, the City and Council will negotiate and execute all necessary development agreements with the developer which could include a land sale or a Joint Development ground lease. Site Details Shady Oak Station amenities include a plaza, bike parking, automobile parking and paved connections to the Minnesota River Bluffs Regional Trail. Two of the potential development parcels front Excelsior Boulevard/Hennepin County Road 3, with average daily traffic volume of 17,600 cars. The sites are adjacent to a 182-stall surface parking lot that will be constructed to serve the station’s park and ride needs north of the station platform. The development parcels will also be served by a new complete street, the extension of 17th Avenue South, making a new north-south corridor through the station area that will include sidewalks, a cycle track, auto lanes, pedestrian-scaled lighting and landscaping. This new street will connect Excelsior Boulevard to K-Tel Drive in Minnetonka/ 5th Street South in Hopkins and provide access an additional 315-stall surface park and ride lot south of the station platform. To the north of Excelsior Boulevard, the City of Hopkins plans to reconstruct 17th Avenue in 2029/2030 and include a separated cycle track to connect the station to the Lake Minnetonka LRT Regional Trail. Opportunities exist to build structured parking on the southeast corner of the site the Met Council has prepared for surface parking, if a joint public/private use could be established. This would be accomplished through the FTA Joint Development Program. Joint Development | FTA (dot.gov) The cities of Hopkins and Minnetonka collaborated with the Green Line Extension Project to enlarge the capacity of the storm water treatment facility south of the line in order to make a regional storm water treatment opportunity. Capacity is limited (serving nearly 4 acres) but can be explored as an option to offset the cost of development. Environmental Remediation History The Hopkins Tech Center parcel has extensive history as a commercial and industrial site with known contamination. In the 1990s, underground storage tanks were removed which identified petroleum hydrocarbon, chlorinated solvent, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) soil and groundwater contamination at the site. The MPCA issued a Certificate of Completion of Response Actions in 1998, with a period of groundwater monitoring required and they acknowledged that residual contamination was present. Studies completed for Green Line Extension confirmed that residual contamination is present on approximately the south three- quarters of the parcel. During Green Line Extension Construction, a 30,000-gallon underground storage tank was removed, and a petroleum release to soil and groundwater from the tank was documented. The petroleum release investigation by Met Council is in progress and is anticipated to be closed in 2024. Additional coordination will be needed as redevelopment plans are developed. Site Maps Potential Excess Property Detail of the Shady Oak Station Platform and Plaza Area Details The site is located in the heart of a large redevelopment area, shared by the cities of Hopkins and Minnetonka. The vision for the larger station area is for transit-supportive uses and densities, which may include housing and employment. It is anticipated that development of the vision will happen incrementally. The METRO Green Line Extension will serve the property and connect the station to the Opus, Golden Triangle, City West and Southwest Stations to the south and west; and stations in St. Louis Park, Downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul to the east. The line is currently scheduled to be in operation in 2027. The Shady Oak Station is within walking distance to Shady Oak Beach, and near Central Park and downtown Hopkins. The Minnesota River Bluffs Regional Trail will be reestablished and connect the site to the vast regional trail system including the Cedar Lake Regional Trail, North Cedar Lake Regional Trail, Lake Minnetonka Regional LRT Trail and the Nine Mile Creek Regional Trail, all within Hopkins. Zoning The site is zoned RX-TOD, Residential-Office Mix Transit-Oriented District (TOD) Center. The RX- TOD zone allows residential, office, and other limited uses horizontally or vertically mixed in a walkable environment. Dimensional standards are specific to allowable building types in each zone, which are the General Building type and the Row Building Type in the RX-TOD zone. The General Building Type has a height minimum of 2 stories and a maximum of 10 stories, with an 80% impervious coverage maximum (plus an additional 15% allowance for semi-pervious coverage). Most uses allowed in the RX-TOD are permitted by-right, meaning only review of a site plan would be needed for zoning approval. Alternatively, the zoning code allows for the use of the Planned Unit Development process to create a cohesive development by way of allowing flexibility from traditional development standards in return for a higher quality development. For more information, please contact Kersten Elverum, Director of Planning & Development at kelverum@hopkinsmn.com or 952/548-6340.